Defending marathon champ seeks improvement

DEFENDING champion of the Old Mutual Harare Marathon Portifa Dombojena says he wants to improve his time when he takes part in the race tomorrow.

The marathon starts and ends at Harare’s Old Georgians Sports Club.

The 42,2km race has evolved with time, starting off as the Old Mutual Rodger Brackley Marathon, then Old Mutual RB Relay Challenge and Old Mutual Relay Challenge before it’s re-branding to Old Mutual Harare Marathon.

Besides the marathon, which is the main event, there is also a 21km race, 10km and 5km run on offer.

Dombojena has been the title holder for the last two years and is hoping to improve his time after clocking two hours 20 minutes 30 seconds in the previous edition.

“I am looking forward to improving my time, but I haven’t been training well because there were some hiccups. But my target is to run a better time than last year because I want to run Two Oceans end of March. So I want to prepare with this race.

“Last year, I ran two hours 20 minutes and the previous year I ran two hours 19 minutes, so if we can push each other for two hours 18 minutes, it will be much better,” said Dombojena.

Meanwhile, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe are holding the national cross country championships this morning at Hillside Dams, in Bulawayo.